York Spec-tacular Glass lecture is free on 22 June

A medieval stained-glass puzzle will be the focus at All Saints North Street in York on Monday 22 June, when Naoki Matsumoto gives the lecture Spec-tacular Glass: Concerning A Pair Of Eyeglasses In The Nine Orders Of Angels Window And Ocular Devotion In Late Medieval York.

The talk runs from 2:00pm to 3:30pm at All Saints North Street, 18 North Street, York, YO1 6JD. Attendance is free, with a suggested donation of £5 to help cover costs. Booking is recommended, and the lecture is aimed at the general public.

The details for visitors

The subject is unusually vivid: a man wearing folding spectacles appears tucked between two figures in the Nine Orders of Angels window at All Saints North Street. According to the event description, the bespectacled figure is not shown in a 1670 sketch of the window, raising the question of where the fragment originally came from.

That question gives the lecture its thread. Rather than treating the glass as a curiosity, the event will explore possible origins for the fragment and the wider place of eyeglasses in late medieval York.

A York window with an unresolved detail

All Saints North Street is presenting the lecture as a close look at one of its best-loved pieces of medieval glass. The figure with spectacles sits inside a larger visual and devotional world: the Nine Orders of Angels window, where individual fragments, later repairs and historic records can alter how a viewer understands what they are seeing.

The source material points to one key tension. A 1670 sketch does not place the bespectacled man where he appears now. That makes the fragment more than an attractive detail; it becomes evidence of movement, alteration or reuse within the history of the window.

The lecture’s title also connects the object to “ocular devotion” in late medieval York, giving visitors a route into how sight, faith, disability, craft and material culture could meet in a church setting. For anyone interested in York’s medieval fabric, the focus is precise: one pair of eyeglasses, one church window, and one question about how historic glass survives in the places people now encounter it.

Naoki Matsumoto brings a specialist stained-glass focus

The speaker, Naoki Matsumoto, graduated with an MA in Medieval Studies at the University of York and is pursuing a PhD at the University of Poitiers in France. His research topic is the representation of people with disabilities in medieval stained glass.

That background fits the lecture’s subject closely. The man with folding spectacles is not only a clue in a conservation or art-historical puzzle; he also opens up questions about how medieval viewers represented bodies, vision and difference in sacred images.

The event is listed by Visit York as a lecture in the workshops, talks and lectures programme. It is hosted by All Saints North Street, the same church where the window can be encountered.

Access and booking notes at All Saints North Street

The church notes that most of the building is wheelchair accessible. The chancel, high altar and anchorhold are not wheelchair accessible, and some floors are uneven because of the building’s historic nature.

Booking is recommended for the event. Donations can be made by cash or card within the church, with a suggested contribution of £5. All Saints North Street lists its opening hours as 10am to 4pm daily.

Source: Visit York Events